LEMON SPRINGS, NC – As unlikely as it may have seemed when their bus pulled up with just seven students instead of the full complement of eight for a team due to illness, B.T. Bullock bested each team they faced on their way to a perfect 6-0 record to capture the inaugural Lee County Schools Elementary Team Chess Championships.
The Bengals top rated player and their number six rated player from their intrasquad scrimmages were both unable to participate due to illness. As one of them fell ill early the morning of the event, a second alternate player was not ready to leave when the bus had to pull off campus to Greenwood for the tournament. However, after spotting five points to their first opponent, J. Glenn Edwards, in their opening match, the Bengals still managed a 35-31 victory in the opening round.
The team tournament was sponsored by the Lee County Schools AIG Education Department. AIG Specialists and some volunteer coaches across the district have been working with chess clubs in each of the eight elementary schools. Several clubs are averaging more than 20 players per meeting in attendance.
“Ultimately, we want kids to be challenged and try new things,” said Lee County Schools Elementary AIG Director, Leslie Cottrell. “Chess really gives students an opportunity to try something new, exciting, and difficult to master. It helps them learn that it is ok to try something new and fail. It teaches them that we learn from our mistakes, and we grow from them, which is always a challenge for young students, particularly our kids.”
The finals saw both alternates, Molly Bauer at number seven, and Lucas Soto at number eight, grab wins to get Bullock off and running with 11 early points in the match against Tramway. Though Tramway’s Connor Campion got the victory at number one over Henry Liggett, numbers two and three in the Bullock lineup, Brandon Griffith and Cayden Johnston toppled their counterparts from Tramway to cement the Bengals as the first champions of the event.
In the semifinals, Tramway drew Broadway with Bullock battling Greenwood. Broadway hung tough, earning three draws at numbers two, six, and eight. However, Connor Campion held at the top spot for Tramway and fellow Tigersharks June Miller and Adyn Sheffield grabbed victories at number four and seven, respectively to clinch a 38-29 win for the Tigersharks.
The other semifinal went to Bullock with the Bengals sweeping the top three positions and earning a 42-26 victory over Greenwood. Bullock’s top three, Henry Liggett, Brandon Griffith, and Cayden Johnson were solid all day, piling up points for the Bengals on their way to the title.
The first elimination round of the tournament saw Tramway and Bullock easily cruise by W.B. Wicker and Deep River, respectively, and into the semifinals. The other two quarterfinals were much tighter with Greenwood earning a hard-fought win over J.R. Ingram 35-33. The Hornets got wins from Anthony Hockaday, Anna Doiron and Owen Chick, the number one, three, and four players on the team respectively, to sew up 31 points in the match, and Callie Castonguay’s draw with Ingram’s Jermaine Martin made the difference to push Greenwood to the Semifinals.
Broadway held off a tough challenge from J. Glenn Edwards in the quarters, as the Wildcat’s number one player, Jorge Casteneda, and number two Warren Campbell etched a pair of wins to anchor the Broadway effort and push them to a 36.5-31.5 victory over the Bees. J. Glenn Edwards made it a tight contest, winning at positions four through six after a draw at number three, but Natalie Cleary the number seven rated player from Broadway earned a win while Anderson Vasquez got a draw at the number eight slot to seal the Wildcat victory.
Soto rolled in as a second alternate for B.T. Bullock just in time to sit for round two of the tournament. With him seated the Bengals slipped by W.B. Wicker 37-31 with the aid of his draw and a win from their first alternate, Bauer. The Bengals won their pool comfortably with a 58-10 victory over J.R. Ingram in the final round of pool play and took the top seed from Pool B into the finals.
Likewise, in Pool A, Tramway dominated the table, winning all three of their pool matches and advancing to the quarterfinals with the top seed. The Tigersharks ran by Greenwood 45-22 in the opening match. They outdueled Broadway 50-18, winning 6 of the 8 team matches in the round. Tramway almost swept Deep River by a 63-5 score, the lone points for Deep River were scored in a draw at the number three position Jabari McLean who managed a draw against Tramway’s Lucas McCaleb.